Projectors in gardens

[Hellishforest]

After just seeing a post on FB with someone recommending a blind as a garden projector screen I wondered how others felt about projectors in gardens.
I love the peace I get in my garden, don’t at all mind the noise of others chatting or eating out in theirs. I don’t mind a little background music. However I don’t think I would be happy if my neighbours were using projectors outside as I imagine the noise of the films/tv would be obtrusive.

YABU - it’s fine to watch TV outside
YANBU - a projector in a neighbouring garden is intrusive

A lot of people use them with wireless headphones though

I'd love one (but no garden for it)

Fine with headphones or houses with no neighbours, appalling otherwise

Very occasionally I wouldn’t mind (like once or twice a summer).

With headphones, fine. Otherwise really fucking unreasonable.

A neighbour over the back from me illuminates the outside of their loft conversion with projected UV lights. They can't see it from their house so I don't know whose benefit they think it's for. It's so unbelievably tacky.

With Headphones maybe. But what’s the fun in that? It will be groups of friends wailing along to Mamma Mia and The Rocky Horror show and kids replaying Let it Gooooooo endlessly…

They are an absolute fucking bane of campsites now.

The new Hot Tub menace.

Does this mean hot tubs are out? And tiki bars?

I've noticed trampolines are becoming fewer and fewer too!

Selfish. This would really annoy me.

YANBU. A colleague of mine bought an outdoor tv last year and her kids sit outside under a pergola thing watching peppa pig all day. If I lived next door I'd go insane.

Ugh, no.

I heard my neighbours talking yesterday about fixing a TV to an outside wall.

I can't sit out in my garden without having to listen to the noise of their fucking hot tub that they have to keep running all the time because it is somehow cheaper than having to heat the water up from scratch, even though they never use it. And I would know when they use it because I would hear all the music and shrieking and swearing that seems to be compulsory on the two or three occasions when they have used it. And no, they don't use it at night because that has to involve music and lights - think Close Encounter of the Third Kind.

I don't like my neighbours very much.

My friend has a projector but no immediate neighbours. It is a proper screen that pulls down inside the brick built entertainment area. It would be horribly anti social in a regular house. But when your garden is a couple of acres and you back on to open land it’s fine, how the other half live.

Don't think watching one movie would be much different (probably quieter) than there being kids out playing. Usually you sit pretty close to it as the speakers aren't that great. I dont find them that intrusive when neighbours use them.

Also live in a country where outside televisions and entertainment areas/ pools/ spas, basketball rings and trampolines are very common (Australia) and can't say that I manage to reach UK peaks of pissed offness I see here at all the above. I also don't own any of the above but the neighbours doing so doesn't affect me mentally or emotionally at all.

If it's used occasionally, like for a long-summer-evening move night a few times a summer, I think it's fine! No different to someone sat out listening to music for a few hours of an evening, which is a very common occurrence. OTOH if it was every day, I think it would be obtrusive because the sounds of a movie are very attention grabbing and starkly stand out in an environment like a garden. Would be difficult to tune them out. So I think it's totally fine as an occasional thing, lovely in fact! Could even make a little neighbourhood movie night party out of it if you had friendly neighbours. Regular thing, as if replacing watching TV/films indoors? Not ok, imo.

Exactly, I think this is totally inconsiderate! Ambient TV noise is an absolute PITA, so off-putting when you're trying to relax and enjoy the outdoors. I think this is very different from the occasional outdoor movie night. Ugh, I really sympathise with you, if my neighbours started actually watching TV regularly outside I'd go spare.

Agree with @Blindsided12 and @Steakandquinoa - although caveat that if no headphones, volume must be quieter than what might be played indoors

I get annoyed when I can hear my neighbours tv in the garden, we had one in a first floor flat behind us which was on very loud, so yanbu. I love the idea of watching a film under the stars, but would never get one as I would hate to hear a neighbour doing it.

You need an air rifle and a teenager with a sense of mischief to resolve this blind issue

I’d really like to see some rules (local bylaws?) about what’s allowed in outdoor spaces. What’s fine in a detached house with a large garden away from neighbours is not fine in a small terrace with pocket sized yard.

Very unreasonable unless the house has big grounds and no neighbours. Some people are very inconsiderate.

We have a TV in our conservatory facing our patio and we'll sometimes put that on in the summer, particularly if there's a sporting event on and we're having a BBQ.

I'm always super, super paranoid about any noise travelling though, especially with young children next door. I have realised, however, that the sound doesn't really travel far. We can hear it on our patio, but I can't hear it from the lawn, so it's quite directional noise. We do keep it low though, and off when it gets dark/later, just in case.

I like the noise of chatter and kids playing, but if anyone else was playing a movie loudly in their garden it would definitely piss me off.

Use headphones if you must, and have the projector screen in a position that you're not going to create any disruptive light for the neighbours.

At the moment, projectors won't work until quite late at night so I'd be very mindful of using one with any neighbours around.

Without headphones YANBU
With Headphone YABU

A projector outside isn’t going to be useable midsummer until it gets dark, late, surely?

Are you as tightly packed in Australia as many of us in the UK? With neighbours on 3 sides, all with small gardens? Terraced or semi detached housing?

I doubt the complaints within the UK come from people with vast wraparound gardens. But few of us live like that.

We have a drop down projector screen which we use mostly late August / early September. We have headphones (which also work for silent discos). The screen is set up on the side of a pergola which is not visible from any other house - we have a big garden with houses on one side (but with a lot of trees in the way). We've done everything we think we reasonably can to avoid this being a nuisance.

A right pain in the arse, but unlike hot tubs etc, really easy to disrupt.

Just get out there and turn your music up loud. They won't be able to hear their film and would be utter hypocrites to complain. After a few attempts to watch something they'll soon give up.